Bourjois 1 Seconde Gel Nail Polish in 34 Violine Hypnotique | Swatches & Review

Size: 9ml

Stockists: Boots & Superdrug

Price: £5.99 (here)

Pros: The finish of this is very shiny and 'polished', maybe not as good as gel, but it's very nice for a regular nail polish. The formula is super opaque meaning I only needed one coat, which I love since i'm super lazy with my nails! The brush is hands-down the best nail polish brush i've ever used - it's short and fat which makes the application really quick and easy. And lastly, this does dry super fast - 1 second may be a little bit of exaggeration, but it's definitely under 30, which is pretty impressive in my book!

Cons: Although I adore this colour, overall I was quite disappointed with the colour range. The only other con I found was that it did chip quite easily - definitely needs a top coat.

I would definitely recommend this nail polish, it's opaque formula, amazing brush, quick drying formula and gorgeous colour make it a clear winner for me!

Have any of you guys tried this or any other colours from the 1 seconde range? Let me know!

xo

My Christmas Wishlist - Benefit, Paperchase & Boohoo

1) Q and A a Day: 5-Year Journal (here)

2) Benefit Erase Paste in Fair (here)

3) Badger Balm Classic Lip Kit (here)

4) Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado (here)

5) Maleficent on DVD (here)

6) Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original (here)

7) Paperchase Noto Mint Green 2015 Diary (here)

8) First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Oatmeal Mask (here)

9) Boohoo Louisa Pom Pom Onesie (here)

What's on your wishlists this Christmas? 

xo

Benefit 'Do The Bright Thing' Kit | Look Inside

This gorgeous kit was bought for me for as a birthday present a couple of weeks ago. I'm actually reluctant to use it because it looks so pristine and neat - i don't want to mess it up! Still, I wanted to share how it looks with you guys because I think it's so perfectly put together. The kit comes inside a thin card packet, the back of which is pictured above. The front of the kit (pictured below) and the front of the box it's packaged in are identical, while the back of the kit has all the product details on, in tiny tiny writing!

 When you open up the kit, you'll find each of the products tucked into their own little compartment. There's:

- 'That Gal' brightening face primer (7.5ml)

- 'High Beam' creamy, pink-champagne-toned highlighter (4ml)

- 'Dandelion' brightening face powder (3g), and a little accompanying brush

- 'They're Real' mascara (3g)

- 'BadGal Liner' extra black waterproof eye pencil (0.5g)

Then above the products, on the underneath of the lid, is a booklet of 'Tips & Tricks' which opens out to instructional cards on how to use each product, revealing a handy mirror in the middle. The white leaflet pictured above contains translations of these tips and tricks.

Below you can see each of the instructional cards from the booklet in the kit. The first one explains how to apply the primer, the second is about the blusher and the highlighter, and the last card tells you how to use the liner and the mascara.

I've gotta say I love this kit! I'm already a big fan of Benefit's products, so even though I haven't used anything yet, I already know I'm going to like it. But regardless of the products, the whole little box and booklet with the mirror and everything - it's just so neat and cute! It makes a great gift :)

What do you guys think of it? Do you like Benefit's products?

xo

Natural Collection Lipstick in Biscuit | Swatches

Picked this up from Superdrug for £1.99! Gorgeous colour, lovely soft formula and long wearing - very happy indeed, and very impressed considering the tiny price tag! 

Have any of you tried this or any other colours from Nautral Collection? 

xo

Easy Halloween Nail Art

I was inspired by these nails, posted on Primark's Instagram account, created by user @kayleighjeana. I thought they looked so effective yet relatively easy compared to some of the other Halloween- themed nail art that I've seen.

Obviously, the fact that these nails are amazingly long and pointed, adds to the Halloween look. Unfortunately for me, i'm not blessed with strong or fast-growing nails so mine look a little pathetic compared with these babies! But as far as the polish goes, i'm really happy with how they turned out :)

I started with a clear base coat, then painted on two coats of Model's Own 'Snow White'. Once the white was dry, I took Model's Own 'Red Red Wine' and, one nail at a time, I dotted it thickly along the edge, before taking a q-tip/cotton bud to smudge and drag it down the nail. I also used the length of a pin to create the lines and the end of the pin to make small dots with the red. Once it was all dry, I applied a clear top coat to seal it all together.

You don't have to use the same polishes as me, any red and white will do, or you could experiment with different colours - black nails with green 'slime' could look really cool! 

Hope you guys have fun experimenting with all aspects of your costumes! Happy Halloween! :)

xo

Halloween Haul | Poundland

Now, I'm someone who is a little obsessed with Halloween... I'm really into all the ghostly, witchy, mysterious elements of it, i love fancy dress, and i love special effects make-up and gore - the more open wounds and fake blood the better in my opinion. To be honest, if Halloween included as much food as christmas it would definitely be my favourite holiday.

Today I want to show you some decorations I bought. My birthday is the day before Halloween so it's kind of an awesome couple of days for me, and definitely requires a party. So, this Thursday i'm throwing a Halloween themed birthday party in my uni flat - very excited! Me and my flatmate took a trip to Poundland the other day to pick up some bits and bobs to put up in the flat:

 My purchases ^^ I bought 2 of those skeletons, they're about 3 and half to 4 feet tall, they're hinged at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees and they have a handy hole at the top where you can loop a piece of string to hang them up. In the bottom right of the picture you can see some 'halloween tinsel' that i picked up and a small bunch of the cotton cobweb stuff (I have loads of that! And loads of fake blood :D) I also bought some little party cups - so cute!  

An awesome scary face cup, some gummy eyeballs (i'm planning on having them floating in jugs of 'punch'), an inflatable bat and an adorable little inflatable ghost.

 

And last but not least I picked up a couple of packs of Halloween themed balloons. I'll take some photos once we're all set up on Thursday and upload them over the weekend so you can see how it ended up looking! I'll also try to take some photos of my outfit and my make-up - i'm being a zombie school-girl! 

Do you guys enjoy halloween? What are you dressing up as?

xo

Rimmel Glam Eyes Quad Eye Shadow in 019 Sun Safari | Swatches

 

4 Shimmery Shades: Champagne, Gold, Bronze & Khaki Brown. Includes a free double-ended sponge applicator. 

Got my swatching fingers a little mixed up so i've added arrows to clarify. Have any of you tried this? I'm loving it!

xo

Nicole x Missguided | My Picks

Nicole X Cut Out Midi Skirt Black
(here)

£25

Nicole X Low Back Strappy Midi Dress Forest Green

(here) 

£25

Nicole X Sequin Mini Skirt

(here)

£20

Nicole X Cage Waist Bandeau Dress in White (here)

£35

The black one is nice too! (here) 

Hope you guys like my picks :) Which items are your favourites from this collection? Let me know!

xo

What's on my iPhone

I've seen this tag on YouTube and always enjoy having a nose at what apps other people have! I'm going to talk you through the apps I have on my iPhone 5C, and I'll do mini descriptions/reviews of the ones you may not have heard of.
*WARNING: Text heavy post*

First Page
National Rail
Duolingo is an app that helps you learn a new language. You can set yourself goals and track your progress. I'm trying to learn French and I find it really effective, just doing 10-15 minutes a day.
Tumblr (i'm a little obsessed)
Facebook & Messenger
Snapchat
Instagram 
WhatsApp
In my music folder is the normal 'Music' app that is already on the phone when you get it, plus:
Air Transfer which let you transfer music to your iPhone over a wi-fi connection.
8Tracks has loads of user-made playlists which you can filter by mood or style. It's a great way to discover new music and independent artists.

Second Page
MyEE helps me keep track of my EE account such as how long I have till my next bill & how much data I've used this month.
Blogger
My Fitness Pal is a great app the helps you keep track of what you're eating, how many calories you're taking in as well as how much protein, cabs and fat your eating. You can add goals to lose or gain weight and the app will calculate how many calories and how much protein, carbs and fat you should be eating to reach your goal. You can add exercise into your day and the app will calculate how many calories you've burnt. I found it really interesting and motivating when I was trying to gain weight. I'd recommend it to everyone.
HSBC
YouTube
My iPill (pill reminder)
My 'Others' folder is just a load of miscellaneous apps that I never really use.

In my 'Food and Travel' folder I have:
Domino's & Just Eat for ordering takeaways
GBK for discounts and special offers at Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Booking.com
TripAdvisor
Weather

Photo Apps:
VSCOcam is such a good photo editing app. You can make loads of different changes such as changing the contrast, lightening the shadows and giving the photo an overall tint of colour. The filters on there are also great and you buy additional packs if you want to.
PhotoWonder is a really cute editing app with an adorable anime-style interface. I like it for its blemish removal feature and filters.
Reflection lets you create those awesome photos were the one side is a reflection of the other, or the bottom is a reflection of the top. It's a great app to play around with, you can create some really surreal images on there.
PhotoGrid is a simple, effective app for making photo collages.
TimerCam (self-timer camera)
And with Free Prints you can upload photos straight from your phone and have them printed for free, you only pay for delivery which makes it super cheap. I recently ordered 40 prints for just £2! They arrived really quickly and are good quality prints, very happy with them.

Games:
Fruit Blast
Candy Crush
Unblock Me
Million Pound Drop (anyone else love playing along?)

Health-Related Apps:
Muji plays soothing music/sounds to help you sleep.
Fit Flexibility includes loads of stretch routines that can help you increase your flexibility.
Blogilates app is great for watching Blogilates vids on the go and looking up delicious healthy recipes. You can also keep track of the workout calendar for each month on here.
SIT times exercise sets and the break time between each one.
Simply Yoga is my favourite yoga app out of all the (free) ones i've tried. It has routines of 20 minutes, 40 minutes or an hour which flow in a smooth logical order. The commentary is very relaxing and informative and I always feel so relaxed and at ease after doing a routine - love it!
MoleCheck lets you photograph the moles on your body, and reminds you to take new photos every few weeks to keep track of any changes that might be happening. This is to make sure all your moles are always looking healthy and safe. I am a very moley person and also very wary of skin cancer so find this app extremely helpful.
Sleep Time tracks how long you sleep for, and how much of your sleep was light or deep. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Relax Melodies is another app that can play soothing sounds to aid sleep. I much prefer this over Muji. There is a much larger variety of sounds to chose from, and you can even combine two sounds to play together.

Shopping Apps:
Depop is a super easy app for buying and selling things. The interface reminds me a lot of Instagram which not only makes it familiar and easy to use, but also I think it looks very sleek.
eBay
UNiDAYS is an app that allows students to get discounts in loads of online stores without having to buy a NUS card.
Amazon

Hope you like this post as something a bit different to the usual beauty content. Let me know what your favourite apps are!

xo

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Carnival Spirit | Swatches & Mini-Review

Size: 3.7g

Stockists: Superdrug & Boots

Price: £7.49

Colour Payoff: This is lipstick gives a sheer, buildable colour which feels moisturising on the lips:

bare lips                                           one coat                                   built up colour

What do you guys think? Have you tried any of the other colours from this range? I know i'd like to!

xo